The chairman of the South Carolina GOP is set to hold a news conference this morning at the New Hampshire State House in Concord. The location signals that New Hampshire and South Carolina are working together to change the presidential nominating calendar.

South Carolina's move, if it sticks, is expected to have a domino effect, propelling New Hampshire earlier and Iowa earlier still, possibly into mid-December of this year -- 11 months before the 2008 presidential election.

That would leave Nevada tied for third in the nominating process rather than alone in second place.

Political analysts Wednesday were waiting for the dust to settle before assessing the new landscape. But they said the changes are sure to alter Nevada's place in the political universe for the 2008 race, probably diminishing the state's importance.

"This is going to change two or three more times before it's over," said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

If Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina put themselves on or before Nevada's date, "Nevada would still have an important position in the schedule, more important than 44 other states, I would say," Sabato said. "But Nevada is a loser (in that scenario). Iowa is a loser. The big winner is actually New Hampshire, not South Carolina."

The tentative calendar of presidential nominating contests starts with Iowa caucuses on Jan. 14; Nevada caucuses five days later; the New Hampshire primary on Jan. 22, and South Carolina primaries on Jan. 29 for Democrats and Feb. 2 for Republicans.

More than 20 other states are scheduled to hold contests Feb. 5, the date before which both parties penalize states for jumping forward by taking away convention delegates.

Florida jumped anyway. It moved its primaries to Jan. 29, robbing South Carolina Republicans of their claim to be the first test of candidates in the South. Today's expected move would restore that status to South Carolina.

New Hampshire state law requires its primary to take place at least seven days before anyone else's, and Iowa law puts that state's caucuses at least eight days before any other state.

If South Carolina goes to Jan. 19, New Hampshire could go to Jan. 12 at the latest.

In that hypothetical case, Iowa officials reportedly would move to mid-December to avoid the holidays.

The political parties in Nevada weren't making any moves Wednesday.

"We're going to do what we think is in Nevada's best interest as it relates to the nominating calendar," Nevada Democratic Party Deputy Executive Director Kirsten Searer said. "I'm not going to speculate now as to what action we might take."

She said the party would "work to preserve the importance of Nevada in this process."

State Republican Party officials didn't return calls Wednesday. The chairman of the Republican caucus effort, Pete Ernaut, said, "I can't imagine a scenario in which we'd move our date."

He added, "We're going to have to wait till all the smoke clears. This is going to set off a chain reaction that could send the whole caucus schedule into chaos."

If South Carolina Republicans move to Jan. 19th and Nevada stays put, the Nevada Republicans' caucus effort, which never got off the ground, will be officially dead in the water, said David Damore, a political scientist at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

"This doesn't change much for the Republicans. They weren't doing much here anyway," Damore said. "The Democrats are still going to come here like they're already coming here. What this means is we'll never see a Republican in the state now."

The story on Jan. 19 will be the Democrats in Nevada and the Republicans in South Carolina, Damore said.

That makes sense for both parties, he said: Jan. 19 would be the Republican candidates' test in the South and the Democratic candidates' test in the West, each region home to a key bloc of the party's base. The Republican candidates want to show they have the support of socially conservative Southern voters, while the Democrats want to prove their mettle with Hispanic and union voters out West.

South Carolina Democrats have no plans to change their date, party Executive Director Joe Werner said Wednesday.

Carson City conservative activist Chuck Muth, who led the charge to move the Nevada Republican caucus to Jan. 19, said he still thought it was a good idea. He predicted the state would continue to see a "trickle" of GOP candidates, but probably fewer visits than South Carolina.

"It's still better for Nevada to have it on the 19th," he said.

Nevada has never been an early state in the presidential nominating process. Last year, the Democratic National Committee moved the Silver State forward at the urging of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

The idea was to put a state with more racial diversity and union workers into the nominating mix. But it made New Hampshire politicos apoplectic, threatening the traditional Iowa-New Hampshire sequence.

A candidate touring New Hampshire soon after the change was made a year ago, for example, was pressured to denounce the Nevada caucuses as "reprehensible," according to an article last year in the New Republic magazine.

The longtime New Hampshire secretary of state, Bill Gardner, has long been expected to move the state ahead of Nevada. Gardner is scheduled to appear with South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Katon Dawson at today's news conference in New Hampshire.

"This could be New Hampshire's revenge on Nevada," Sabato said.